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Harry Potter

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"I loathe Pansy Parkinson. I don't love Draco but I really dislike her. She's every girl who ever teased me at school. She's the anti-Hermione. I loathe her."
J.K. Rowling

Lord Voldemort, the chief antagonist of the franchise, has done tons of despicable things, including killing Harry's parents, but even if he was responsible for setting the series's plot into motion with the murder of Harry's parents, he acts in the shadows for most of the series and thus isn't really a suitable nexus for audience scorn. In his place are other characters who are willing to serve as bullseyes for the audience's hatred.


Harry Potter
  • The Dursleys are your archetypal Dahlian abusive family to Harry. However, whereas Dudley has a Heel–Face Turn after Harry saves his life from the Dementors at the start of Order of the Phoenix, and Aunt Petunia is revealed to have sympathetic reasons for her hatred of the Wizarding World rooted in lifelong envy of her sister Lily's powers, ultimately having at least something of a Heel Realization, Uncle Vernon is never given any redeeming moment towards Harry. Unlike Petunia, he has no motive for his hatred of magic other than his general disdain for anyone who isn't like him, and he is a vulgar, short-tempered, and petty-minded Jerkass even at the best of times, embodying everything Rowling herself thinks is wrong with British society all the while. He outright encourages Dudley's rude behavior and bullying of Harry, and when he hears that Dementors have been sent after Harry in Little Whinging, his knee-jerk response is to try kicking Harry out of his house to save himself, his wife, and his son, which in the current circumstances would most certainly spell a death sentence to the teenage Harry, who had just saved his son's life, might one add.
  • And then there's Marge Dursley, Uncle Vernon's sister. She appears in exactly one chapter of Prisoner of Azkaban, but it only took that one to one-up her brother and then some. She's a compulsive brandy drinker (while simultaneously slinging false accusations at Harry's parents of having been the same), cares more about her dogs than most people — which, given how callously she has the runt of one litter drowned, is very little as well — has even more rancid classist notions than Vernon's, shows unabashed joy at the thought of Harry receiving corporal punishment, and even Dudley has to be bribed to tolerate her presence. Ultimately, she gets a very satisfying comeuppance from Harry, who isn't even punished for inflating her due to both existing circumstances and the fact that it was an accident.
  • Draco Malfoy, Harry's acid-tongued rival, is introduced as a pureblood supremacist rich kid who thinks he is better than others because he was born in a rich family, and therefore is blinded by the hubris of being a pureblood. Throughout the books, he spends most of his spare time patronizing Harry for his fame, Ron for being poor, and Hermione for being, in his eyes, a member of the inferior species. As the story progresses, his scruples get lower and lower to the point where he openly declares that he wishes to know who Slytherin's heir is so he can help him kill Muggle-borns, deliberately fake the severity of the injury Buckbeak inflicted on him so Hagrid will be sacked (it doesn't work, but Buckbeak almost gets killed for it), and so on. This is finally subverted in Half-Blood Prince and by the time of the series denouement, he has finally accepted the fact that Muggleborns can be proper wizards after all. Although Draco makes several attempts on Dumbledore's life, which almost get two other people killed, he's ultimately shown to be pitiable and is arguably at his most sympathetic, as he clearly doesn't want to be a member of the Death Eaters but knows Voldemort will kill him and his family if he fails.
  • Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, Draco's two handymen, are essentially Malfoy minus the small share of redeeming qualities that Draco himself possessed, or any motive for their actions beyond being obnoxious, brutish pieces of work. Having the same personality as Draco but being even dumber, uglier, and crueler, no one was remotely sorry when Crabbe (Goyle in the movie) got himself killed in an unbelievably stupid way by his own misdirected spell in an attempt to kill Harry, Hermione, and Ron, making him the only person in the series with the unceremonious achievement of dying in the Room of Requirement.
  • Subverted with Severus Snape. Despite largely acting as a cruel, bitter, and absurdly unfair Sadist Teacher (with the third book, in particular, showing how much of a Jerkass he can be at his worst) and despite, as the series progresses and his backstory and Hidden Depths are revealed, never truly stopping his petty and spiteful bullying towards Harry, being consistantly portrayed as one of his major antagonists in his school life, it is the major reveal shown in Deathly Hollows (where we find out just how much of a (morally grey) hero he was all along despite remaining a cruel, bitter and absurdly unfair Sadist Teacher) where the subversion comes in, making it clear that for all of his flaws, he's ultimately and firmly a good person deep down and far from the Death Eater spy and horrible person that the first six books were seemingly building him up to be.
  • Pansy Parkinson is portrayed as a one-dimensional Alpha Bitch who's rude, insulting, prejudiced (topping off the series' usual Fantastic Racism with some actual racism towards Angelina Johnson), and cruel with no improvement throughout the series; she's also the only Hogwarts student who wants to sell out Harry to Voldemort in exchange for safety, a move so heinous that it forced all the Slytherins in the dungeon. On top of that, she's dumb and ugly. Rowling herself isn't particularly subtle about it, describing her as "...every girl who ever teased me at school ... I loathe her."
  • During Harry's time at Hogwarts, the students of Slytherin House, in general, are nothing but a bunch of devil incarnates who have overdosed on Always Chaotic Evil. They seem to share the same opinions as Draco in the exact manner of a hive mind and think too highly of themselves, even resorting to lying, cheating, or stealing to get what they desire, alongside having less than favorable opinions towards half-bloods and Muggle-borns. They also harbor an extreme lack of scruples, given that they participate in a lot of dehumanizing variations of bullying, such as creating a Crowd Song that mocks Ron's poor Quidditch performances or joining Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad so they can dole out punishments to their classmates. Because of this and as well as the Slytherins believing Dumbledore is the worst thing that's ever happened to Hogwarts, there are no Slytherins in Dumbledore's Army. Most of this fault can be attributed to Voldemort, who negatively influenced his fellow classmates and their descendants into viewing themselves as the Master Race. It isn't until Half-Blood Prince that we meet a friendly Slytherin, in the form of Horace Slughorn.
  • Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, manages to be an even bigger Jerkass and Fantastic Racist than his son. He openly insults the Grangers for being Muggles and the Weasleys for being poor, harshly berates his son for his poor grades, glowers at the 14-year-old Hermione for being a Muggle-born, physically abuses his House-Elf, and, in his most loathsome act not directly connected to being a Death Eater, has the 11-year-old Ginny brainwashed to open the Chamber of Secrets, which could have killed several children and did result in said children being petrified, intending to take advantage of the situation to have Dumbledore sacked and Arthur Weasley's life ruined, all to settle a petty grudge with Arthur and rid himself of an incriminating dark artifact. But the film version of Lucius is worse, attempting to outright murder Harry for foiling his plans in Chamber of Secrets. Like with Draco, this gets subverted in the later books, as his love for his wife and son is presented as a genuine redeeming quality, but Word of God states that Lucius ultimately learns nothing from Voldemort's defeat and remains a bitter Muggle-hater in his old age.
  • Gilderoy Lockhart is a a Know-Nothing Know-It-All characterised by his grotesque arrogance. He claims to have performed many heroic deeds, but is actually a fraud who used the Memory Charm (the only spell he was even remotely good at) to erase the memories of others and claim the credit for himself. During his one-year stance as Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, he is seen as a complete joke, not helped by his many attempts to one-up other Professors in their own field and failing miserably every time. When real danger rears its head, he is revealed to be a complete coward who is willing to leave Ginny to die in the Chamber to save his own neck while attempting to wipe Ron and Harry's memories... only for Ron's wand to wonderfully backfire on him and wipe his own mind clean due to Ron's wand being damaged earlier in the story. This potentially horrifying fate earns him no sympathy and is Played for Laughs, and Order of the Phoenix reveals that it has taught him nothing, as he remains exceptionally full of himself even though he can barely remember who he is. It is worth mentioning that during his time as a student, his Professors noted that he was very intelligent (being sorted into Ravenclaw) and could have been a great wizard, but was so vain that he never actually bothered to develop his magical talents.
  • Cornelius Fudge is initially presented as something of a Reasonable Authority Figure, but by the end of Goblet of Fire and throughout Order of the Phoenix, he shows his true colors as a corrupt, cowardly, greedy, xenophobic nitwit who puts the entire world in danger by ignoring Voldemort's return. To do this, he launches a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore (despite the latter always giving him helpful advice during his years in office) and puts the former through a Kangaroo Court where he acts incredibly smug and refuses to let Harry get a word in. He also puts too much importance on so-called "blood purity," having held back Arthur Weasley to low-paying positions within the Ministry for what he views as lacking proper wizarding pride (read: being the patriarch of a pureblood wizarding family but not sharing Fudge's views on blood purity), while continuing to associate with Lucius Malfoy, a former Death-Eater. Eventually, when the truth about Voldemort's return is revealed and Fudge winds up forced to resign in disgrace, he wants Harry to help him despite everything he did, leaving Harry and Dumbledore disgusted.
  • The film version of Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew lacks any of his redeeming qualities from the book, including his gratitude toward Harry, which ultimately led to his death when Voldemort's silver hand kills him for it. Instead, he is portrayed as a coward who betrays the Potter family to Voldemort to save himself despite them trusting him with their lives, thus orphaning baby Harry. Initially believed to be Sirius Black’s victim, Wormtail had actually framed Black, faked his own death, killed twelve innocent Muggles, and cut off a finger before disguising himself as Ron’s pet rat, Scabbers. When finally confronted by Lupin and Black, he blames Voldemort’s coercion but still pleads for his own life. After escaping, he serves Voldemort purely out of self-interest to even his master's disgust, going on to kill Cedric Diggory, and even attempts to gleefully kill Harry despite the boy once sparing his life from his former friends.
  • Rita Skeeter is a smug, obnoxious Paparazzi journalist for The Daily Prophet who has no respect for anyone's privacy, and spends the vast majority of her time writing blatantly false and defamatory articles that just serve to make Harry and Hermione's lives more difficult. Her writings about Harry convince Minister Fudge that Harry is crazy and shouldn't be believed about Voldemort, so she's more responsible for Voldemort's damage than one might think. She even manages to be just as scummy in Deathly Hallows despite not personally appearing. There, she writes a tell-all book about Albus Dumbledore's life and darkest secrets, despite the fact that he was just recently murdered. She is, notably, the only person in the entire franchise whom Dumbledore (including his younger self in Fantastic Beasts) treats with outright contempt instead of his usual condescending rudeness he uses on people he doesn't like. She also makes the detestable, homophobic implication in Deathly Hallows that Dumbledore has an "unnatural" interest in Harry.
  • Zacharias Smith never does anything evil, but stands out as a particularly obnoxious and annoying character. He joins Dumbledore's Army, only to complain about everything Harry tries to teach them. He later becomes an incredibly biased Quidditch commentator in the sixth book and makes one final appearance in the seventh book, abandoning Hogwarts before the final battle starts and pushing first years out of his way whilst deserting.
  • Fenrir Greyback, while not as widely hated as many of the above examples due to his villainy being of the same over-the-top and impersonal brand as Voldemort's, is still a cannibal and the werewolf personification of Would Hurt a Child, to the point of even being implied to be a pedophile.
  • Marvolo Gaunt is The Patriarch of the Gaunt family and one of the last living descendants of Salazar Slytherin alongside his children Morfin and Merope. Marvolo treated his daughter Merope with nothing but contempt, forcing her to do all the work and berating her for her lack of magic, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy since abuse stifles the development of magic. Because of his bloodline, Marvolo thought he was untouchable, and proved to be unreasonable when confronted about his son's attack on a Muggle named Tom Riddle. When Marvolo learned of his daughter's infatuation with Riddle, he tried to strangle her in front of a Ministry official, leading to his and Morfin's arrest. Marvolo's abusive treatment of his daughter caused decades of suffering for the wizarding world when Merope despaired after being left by Riddle and died giving birth to his son, who would become Lord Voldemort and instigated two wars in a mad quest for power and immortality.
  • To save the best for last, Dolores Umbridge is perhaps the most universally despised character in the entire franchise for a truckload of reasons. She uses her position at Hogwarts to help the Ministry undermine Harry and Dumbledore for daring to tell the truth about Voldemort's return, instates a number of rules that give her absolute authority over the staff, and in a horrific example of Writing Lines, outright tortures Harry by forcing him to magically carve "I must not tell lies" into his hand with a cursed quill that uses his blood as ink, which gives him another permanent scar. She hides all of her horrible traits under a sugary-sweet façade, lacking even the Love to Hate charisma of Voldemort. In Order of the Phoenix, Umbridge demonstrates the consequences of giving power to a bigot, promoting hatred towards half-bloods and Muggle-borns (which is rich when you learn that she herself IS a half-blood), depriving students of the capacity to learn self-defense, and disrespecting Hagrid and the inhabitants of the Forbidden Forest. It gets even worse when she returns in Deathly Hallows, where she graduates from "mere" petty cruelty to outright assisting with genocide and war crimes, accusing Muggle-borns of "stealing magic". Whether she was an incognito Death Eater all along or merely an opportunist jumping at the chance to cause pain to as many people as possible is never confirmed. Not that we have even the slightest sympathy for her when Word of God confirmed that after Voldemort's death, she was tried and handed a life sentence in Azkaban (albeit one without Dementors). Stephen King himself described Umbridge as "the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter", and coming from the man who created Annie Wilkes, Samuel Norton, IT, William "Wild Bill" Wharton and Randall Flagg, that's saying a lot.

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